Today's News

Roane County Board of Education’s plan to fix its financial problems for the 2013-14 school year is not a done deal.
The Roane County Commission, the funding body for the school system, still needs to approve the plan. That’s not simply a formality.
“There have been amendments in the past year that have not been approved,” Board Member Wade McCullough pointed out at the July school board meeting.
The budget committee, which includes four of the 15 commissioners, will discuss the plan on Wednesday.

Two East Tennessee pit bull rescue groups are at odds with each other.
Harriman-based East Tennessee Pit Bull Rescue Inc. and Break The Chain Pit Bull Rescue, which operates from Lenoir City, sued each other in Roane County General Sessions Court last year. Both suits were dismissed without prejudice in March.

Months before the dismissal, a judge put a mutual restraining order in place that was supposed to prohibit the parties from making disparaging remarks on Facebook or talking and texting each other.

Peeking under leaves and digging in the dirt are all part of a day of fun for Evans Heights youth in Rockwood.

The Roane County Master Gardeners help the community’s children tend a thriving garden filled with a variety of produce from tomatoes and peppers to zucchini, pumpkins, Swiss chard, potatoes and chives.

The group, which recently built birdhouses during one session, is fondly called the Kids Garden Club.

Leon Houston’s federal trial on a firearms charge, scheduled to start this week, has been postponed.

He filed a motion for a continuance on July 25.

According to court records, the government didn’t object, and the motion was granted by U.S. Magistrate C. Clifford Shirley Jr.

Houston, who is in custody at the Blount County Jail in Maryville, is charged in federal court with possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of a controlled substance and threatening to kill attorney James Logan via telephone.